1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein are directed to systems and methods for automated lighting control, and more particularly to rules based, automated lighting control that uses wireless networks to propagate and implement rules based control of lighting systems.
2. Related Art
In, e.g., commercial buildings, lights are often left on after hours, or when no one is in a particular room. This practice waste electricity and causes premature bulb burn out, both of which lead to increased operating costs, as well as a host of other negative effects. Central control systems have been proposed an implemented that attempt to automate lighting control in order to mitigate this problem. Such systems often make use of time of day control, motion sensors, or both.
Time of day control can, for example, control the lighting system such that lights are scheduled to go off at a certain time in the evening and come back on at a certain time the next morning. Motion sensors can be configured such that they cause the lights in a particular room to go off when no motion has been detected in the room for a certain period of time, and to come back on once motion is detected.
Unfortunately, these conventional solutions suffer several problems that limit their effectiveness, convenience, or both. For example, time of day controls do not effectively, or efficiently accommodate the need to use the lights after the programmed shut off time. For example, in a large office building, employees of a certain tenant company, such as a law firm, may need to work late into the evening. This requires arrangements to be made to override the time of day controls, which can be inconvenient; moreover, if such arrangement are not made ahead of time, then it can be difficult to get the lights turned back on to accommodate the late working crew.
Motion sensors will often cause the lights in a room to go off even when the room is occupied if the occupant is still for an extended period of time, for example, typing at their desk. This again can be inconvenient, especially if it occurs repeatedly.
Another problem is that these conventional systems require a costly and time consuming re-wiring of the electrical system.
Still another problem is that such systems do not address the need to find and replace burnt out bulbs. In a large complex, their can be numerous undetected, at least by maintenance personal, burnt out light bulbs. This reduces the overall effectiveness of the lighting system and once again can be inconvenient.